AP photographer Ebrahim Noroozi used determination and empathy to gain access to the world of Afghanistan‘s hard-drug street addicts. The result is an unflinching but sensitive photo essay that takes readers inside the addicts’ bleak lives.
Other news organizations have covered Afghanistan’s drug culture, as did the AP in a powerful all-formats package last year, but Noroozi‘s images — raw, yet layered and nuanced — are at once intimate and riveting.
Hundreds of addicts gather under a bridge to use drugs — mostly heroin and methamphetamines — in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 15, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
Addicts smoke heroin on a staircase under a bridge as addicted dogs sprawl on the steps in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 7, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
Addicts smoke heroin under a bridge in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 9, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
An addict smokes heroin on the edge of a hill in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 9, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
An addict uses heroin on the edge of a hill in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 7, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
Addicted dogs sit among the hundreds of addicts who gather on the edge of a hill to use drugs, mostly heroin and methamphetamines, in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 8, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
An addict smokes heroin on the edge of a hill in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 9, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
An addict smokes heroin on the edge of a hill in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 16, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
The body of a dead addict lies covered by a shawl in an area inhabited by drug users under a bridge in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 15, 2022.
Taliban fighters look for drug addicts hiding in garbage during a raid in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 1, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
Drug addicts who were picked up during a Taliban raid wait in a truck to be taken to a drug treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 2, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
Drug addicts detained in a Taliban raid line up on their way to the detoxification ward of a drug addiction treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 31, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
A drug addict detained in a Taliban raid walks to a shower at a drug addiction treatment camp, in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 31, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
Drug addicts detained during a Taliban raid wait to shower at a drug addiction treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 31, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
Drug addicts detained during a Taliban raid wait to have their heads shaved at a drug addiction treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 31, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
A drug addict detained during a Taliban raid is shaved at a drug treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 31, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
A drug addict detained during a Taliban raid is shaved at a drug treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 31, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
A drug addict sits on his bed in the detoxification ward of a drug treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 30, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
Drug addicts detained during a Taliban raid are taken to the detoxification ward of a drug treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 29, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
Drug addicts detained in a Taliban raid wait to be transferred to the detoxification ward of a drug treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 29, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
Drug addicts rest on their beds in the detoxification ward of a drug treatment camp, in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 29, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
Drug addicts undergoing treatment eat in a dining hall of a drug treatment camp in Kabul Afghanistan, May 30, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
A drug addict undergoing treatment looks out from iron bars in the detoxification ward of a drug treatment camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 30, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi
On eight occasions he spent time at locations in Kabul where the addicts gather — on a hillside and under a bridge. Each time, he would spend hours, watching and talking. He helped where he could, giving some food or water. Noroozi says that he wanted to see these people closely, “to face them and their problems, understand what they are suffering from.” The addicts gradually accepted his presence and he was able to follow the grueling flow of their daily lives, apparent in his images.
After a few visits to the hillside, a source called, saying the Taliban would be conducting a raid that night. Norozzi guessed correctly that they would target the bridge. There, the Taliban tried to stop him from photographing, but he convinced them to let him work, and they eventually allowed him access to their drug rehabilitation center. He wound up making striking images on multiple trips there too.
Complementing the haunting photos, Noroozi’s personal notes of his visits were so compelling that he and Cairo-based editor Lee Keath fashioned them into a first-person account, drawing readers directly into the experience.
Drug addicts undergoing treatment eat in a dining hall of a drug treatment camp in Kabul Afghanistan, May 30, 2022.
AP Photo / Ebrahim Noroozi